Without pouring too much shit on the bloke (he's done some good things for the club ) .. Tonight should have shown you here that think he's the guy to lead us to the promised land that he isn't.
There's the obvious ones like Jake that we all see and most have commented on . He's not a first graders asshole. To add to that his development throughout this season has been a complete and utter disgrace. BA has done his son a complete disservice. 5 min cameos at hooker in the NRL then going back and playing Cup .. for fuck sake he almost has as many NRL career starts as he does NSW cup and he is not ready . He's not ready to come on and contribute anything positive in a finals match. It's disgraceful he has a spot in the 17 and i'm doing so some weeks we play a player short to carry him. He doesn't execute a lot of things in Cup. He's extremely slow and off the pace even at that level . Above all else he is a young footballer learning his craft. HE IS NOT A FIRST GRADER. Everyone know this but it's other things as well. Of course the team supports him but you can't tell me they believed he could do the job. Moses off , every head dropped .
His use of the bench is puzzling. Semi finals are wars of attrition . He goes in with a plan to play 15-17. & he's been doing it all season . The good clubs build through the season . If we heaven forbid lost Reg or Paulo we've got 1 other prop who's been getting minutes all season . Kaufusi. None of the others in our squad have been getting any game time. Rotating Ogden, Greig , N Brown , and even Carty through the squad woulda been better advised then Nepokids 5 min cameos.
There's little areas of our game we haven't built either . The most deadly attacking play in the game at the moment is the attacking scrum . Trap the ball in , the defending backline is offside every time but the scrum doesn't know when to break either . Every team does it and runs at least 1 attacking play off it . Except us . Ball in and out and a Junior hit up . To make it worse we've had 3 years of the same combinations and haven't built anything.
Waqa Blake .. For weeks we have been getting wins despite him struggling under the high ball . It's been getting to the point the last couple of weeks where he is almost running away from the ball. Bailey Simonsson for his weaknesses has been great under the high ball. He was great against Penrith earlier in the year. We come up against the best kicker in the game who can terrorise wingers and BA completely ignores what Waqa has been doing under the high ball the last month . A coach on top of his game isn't so reactive and would've made the counter move . We have Bailey playing centre in reggie's.
Cartwright ... Is a point of difference . That's what you want off your bench . If the game doesn't suit what he offers don't put him on. You're not playing useless plodder Maka anyway . But there are games his point of difference is useful. Stupid thing is the last couple of games he played for us he had good cameos and was dropped for Arthur Junior .
BA has not built our squad and our game to get the title . We gave our all for 60 mins tonight but he hasn't built a season where we're ready to counter all that's thrown at us . We need everything to go absolutely right and in finals footy it rarely does . There's a reason this flop is 2-8 in finals and i'm sorry to say fellow Eels fans we have been trying to tell you for ages.
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Well said and spot on.
He needs to win the next 3 games to salvage his 9 years here with nothing to show.
I'd suggest a few players should be on the same deadline.
BA has built this squad ready to challenge for the title. An amazing and admirable achievement. Then he sabotages himself by insisting on his son's inclusion. I've no sympathy. You backed your boy and you've paid the price.
As soon as Moses was gone and boy wonder came on I turned the game off because I knew it would only get worse with Jake on.
It's not his fault. It's his dads fault for pushing him into 1st grade when he just isn't up to it and to be honest, from what I have seen he never will be.
Another missed opportunity and time for BA to walk.
100%
I find it funny BA had the courage to tell a super talented young Matterson he wasn't going to make it as a five eight, Matterson went away and came back to Parra as a lock because BA was right.
BUT, FUCKEN BUTT! When it comes to his baby giraffe sloth hybrid son he is as blind as a brown eye.
Yeah all fair points and he will be under scrutiny from the club no doubt following the year. But season is not over and its up to him and the players to get it back. I prefer N Brown too on the bench tbh and particularly against a Melb or Canberra but who do you have on bench if MM or DB goes down again? You would need Matterson or Niukore to move to centre where they've not played all season to my knowledge. The coach makes the calls and he is accountable - but the players need to be too. We made some fkn errors and that last try was too easy with Junior i think not getting off his line and he wasn't the only one.
Try scored on our left edge was also too easy - wing rushes in and try scored.
Yeah all fair points and he will be under scrutiny from the club no doubt following the year. But season is not over and its up to him and the players to get it back. I prefer N Brown too on the bench tbh and particularly against a Melb or Canberra but who do you have on bench if MM or DB goes down again? You would need Matterson or Niukore to move to centre where they've not played all season to my knowledge. The coach makes the calls and he is accountable - but the players need to be too. We made some fkn errors and that last try was too easy with Junior i think not getting off his line and he wasn't the only one.
Try scored on our left edge was also too easy - wing rushes in and try scored.
JA is definitely out of form. Making lots of errors for weeks. Not to mention he is nowhere near NRL level and the top teams will always pick him apart at the moment. Yet BA chose an out of form half back who is going to get destroyed in a high level nrl match regardless over two representative level players Cartwright and Brown. And Cartwright is in great form and has removed his two weaknesses- his defence has been strong last two NRL games and he had the best tackle efficiency in the cup final. His last two NRL games he did not push the speculative play. But he is super talented and can make something out of nothing when required. Both could have been a huge help for our forwards who have been flogged to death, as could have Ogden who has been killing it in the Cup and looked good in recent NRL cameos.
BA never shows situational awareness and is never proactive.
Well said unfortunately nothing will change in the short or long term
Firstly, the positive: we didn't play our best and were within 5 points of the best team in the NRL with 20 minutes to go. When JA came on it became a procession - easily fixed by not playing him in the 17. If he is selected in the 17 I will write a letter of no confidence to the club.
Our wingers can't defend, I've said it multiple times here, when To'o scored their second try, Sivo didn't need to come in - watch the replays and it is obvious. They can't catch either- Blake is an absolute nightmare. I don't know that we have the required depth of centres and wingers.
Finally, the mistakes. Jr Paolo kept dropping the ball. He has soft hands so idk what is going on there- then he goes for the captain's challenge. Idiot.
Simple fixes for next week:
1. Brown or Cartwright at 17 instead of JA
2. Replace Blake - is there noone in the whole club who can't do a better job on the wing? Not a gun up and coming centre?
3. Fix the simple errors. Drill the living shit out of them this week in dropped ball and hospital passes.
4. Get them up for the game. Either they went in too over or under confident.
Don't make the same mistakes again BA.
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